Menu

Tag Archives: biscuits

Viennese whirls are very popular with afternoon tea, however most Brits are only familiar with Mr Kipling’s version – and whilst they are exceedingly good, they’re even better homemade! I like to use Lakeland’s silicon macaron moulds for baking these – they have a slight lip which keeps the biscuits from spreading too far. This helps when sandwiching the biscuits, as the bases are all uniform.

This is a miniature version, based on The Hairy Bikers’ recipe.

Makes around 20 – 24 x 1.5″ sandwiched biscuits. Can be stored in the biscuit tin (not refrigerated) for around 3 days.

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, and line baking sheet with greaseproof paper. If using silicon moulds, there’s no need to grease for this recipe.

2. With a food processor, blitz the butter, icing sugar, flour, cornflour and vanilla extract until a smooth paste forms.

3. Prepare a piping bag (ideally strong and disposable) with an open star nozzle (a Wilton 1M is ideal for this). Transfer your dough to the piping bag, and knead the bag gently until the dough is soft enough to pipe (the warmth from your hands should loosen the buttery mixture).

4. Pipe (ideally in to rosettes, but randomly piped mountains also look quite attractive when baked!).

5. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until golden. Cool on the tray until cool enough to handle, and transfer to a cooling rack.

6. To make the buttercream filling, place the butter in a stand mixer and mix until soft.

7. Add the icing sugar and and vanilla extract. To prevent icing sugar covering every surface in the kitchen, either initally mix it in with a wooden spoon until the powder has been absorbed, or cover the mixer with a large clean tea towel. Whip the buttercream (using the paddle attachment) until light, soft and fluffy. This will take around five minutes. Place the buttercream in to a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle.

8. Place the jam in to a saucepan over a low heat for a few minutes to loosen up. Then, transfer to a piping bottle (though don’t worry if you don’t have a piping bottle – you can use a teaspoon when assembling later instead). Be careful at this stage – if left for too long over the heat, the jam is likely to be very hot.

9. Sort your biscuits in to pairs – the top and bottom should be roughly equal sizes.

10. Pipe a circle of buttercream on to the bottom biscuit, and top this with a smaller circle of jam. Then, gently push on the top biscuit, so that the filling pushes out to the edges.

11. Repeat with remaining biscuits, and sprinkle with a light dusting of icing sugar.